Having been unemployed and unable to find work in my specialisation of accounting, to which I devoted almost 20 years study and work, I realised the field is closed to me and must move on. Economists will say I’m a “discouraged job seeker” and will not be counted as unemployed – to be unemployed one must be actively looking for work. Realistically, I probably won’t have another permanent job again.
I was the finance officer and accountant for a non-profit organisation in Cape Town. In September 2012, out of the blue, management called me to a meeting. A retrenchment consultant - like the George Clooney movie Up In The Air, told me I allegedly “cost too much”, was “overqualified” and "frustrated" in a job they deemed beneath me. She said a bookkeeper could do my job at half the salary and my post was at the functional level of a data capturer.
How they determined this, I don’t know, because no one had ever discussed my job with me and they did not know what it really entailed.
The organisation was financially stable with a good donations stream. Ironically, a post they cut in another department was later filled after a donor insisted it was essential and budgeted for.
It was obvious management – an opaque bunch allegedly allegedly imbued with Christian principles – had decided to dismiss me without understanding the organisational and financial impact. As the de facto finance manager, I tried to advise them and the board about the broad financial environment, but to coin a phrase, one cannot fill a cup that is already full.
My retrenchment did not make sense. I was the first trained professional ever employed there. Donors and auditors praised the organisation for its reporting and systems, which I instituted. On the other hand, management and colleagues had no technical knowledge of and were out of their depth with accounting and financial management. I rescued management many times, and after my advice was ignored. Even after been told I had to go, my boss, the director, still called on my expertise because he admitted he was not technically competent to address accounting matters.
After I was gone my former department doubled in staff size, yet they had claimed they needed to cut costs! There were confirmed reports my “replacement” and a couple of others allegedly embezzled a significant amount of money (they were fired). A competent management would not have allowed this to take root - but they did not want a trained person employed there.
Ironically, the current incumbent of my job has the title of financial director, a post they claimed they did not need.
Updated 30 April 2016.
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